Volksmarch

You get used to walking, and then more and more. Then I think it's a habit. Sometimes I get too busy to walk much at all, but then most days I have more than 10K steps, so I still manage to average 10K/day.

The Fenton walk is really nice. You go through a conservation area, around a lake. A deer ran across the road not too far from my dog and me. Jumped a fence. My dog was very interested in that, although very well behaved! Then we walked through a neighborhood to the city park and continued on to the Greenway (will be part of a 16-mile trek) along the Meramec River. The river was high even then. (We'll be getting a lot of water along the Missouri River.) Then we walked through the old section of Fenton, then doubled back and finished up walking through another subdivision. This is interesting because in Fenton is where the former Chrysler plant was, and the streets in this area are named after the Chrysler cars: Imperial, Dart, Fury, etc.

Diabetes is hard to manage. My first cousin is diabetic. He is not at all overweight, but very thin. He was diagnosed after high school. His first wife complained a lot about meal preparation.

Where have you walked recently? There was a VM Saturday in Mascoutah, but I couldn't go because I was meeting some friends for lunch. It was hotter than blazes on Saturday, anyway! But Mascoutah is really fun--it's an Ice Cream Walk. All the stores downtown invent their own sundae, for example, the hair salon gave us (free) a scoop of ice cream with chocolate sprinkles to look like hair. They have a contest, and you vote for the ice cream you like the best. Now, being that I'm trying to lose weight , this walk is probably not the best for me, but I do remember getting about 10 scoops of ice cream! So nice on a hot summer day! Love that VM!

Sorry about your mom. It was hard when we had to put my dad in a Nursing Home. He begged us to let him come home. It was sad and hard on my mother.

On the happier side of your post. Tell me where the VM was. What did you see.

My hubby and I went to a Nature Reserve in Chicago. We walked a mile for the first time. He got tired and had to sit. That isn't at all like him. It worries me. He is Type 2 Diabetes and I don't think he is watching his diet at all. I try to but I only do dinners. He has to do his other meals and snacks.

Sorry it has taken me so long to answer. My mother has been having health problems. We had to scout out Assisted Living homes, and she moved into a nice place May 6. Then on May 13, she had sudden chest and arm pains while we were there with her, so of course we thought heart attack. The nurse and other staff members arrived at her apartment within two minutes. That's pretty fast! So she went in an ambulance to the hospital. No heart attack. No one knows what caused the pain. But she stayed in the hospital 8 days, just leaving yesterday to go to a skilled nursing facility for rehab. Whew! When I saw her today she looked better than she has looked in some weeks. So I've been caught up with helping my Mom and Spark has taken a back seat.

I have, however, still been walking. I went on a VM yesterday. It was supposed to have been a 10K but it was longer. I can tell by my pedometer (16,000 steps = 8 miles more/less) and by the time it took me to walk it. I will be writing a note to the club and asking them to kindly check to make sure it's a 10K. I don't mind walking extra, it's just that I had to be somewhere by 3 pm and get cleaned up, etc. to make myself presentable!

Well, if Door County is so artsy, probably my husband wouldn't enjoy it. The people I know who went there probably would have loved that aspect of it.

I was just a little west of Door County slightly north and west of Appleton. Wisconsin is nice but aimed a lot at tourism. If you like to gamble there are casinos on the Indian Reservations. I prefered the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin and Wisconsin along lake Superior to Minnesota. There are som nice mountains which shocked me. I didn't know there were mountains that close to Chicago. The Porcupine Mountains and Iron Mountain were interesting.

I didn't much like Door county. If you are into artsy fartsy yuppie stuff it is nice. Otherwise way too commercial for me. I did go to a fish boil which was worth going there for a day just to experience. I have some neat pictures.

There is a VM through Peshtigo which is just north of Geen Bay. I'm not sure if it is still in Door County but it is close to it. I wouldn't mind going there. I have a friend from Pestigo. There was a fire there the same day as the Great Chicago Fire and it killed more people than the Chicago Fire. It was a great tragedy. Her family (farmers) escaped by climbing down into their well.

That didn't save all families that tried that. The fire was so intense that it sucked the air out of the wells leaving the people dead of suffocation. It is a very interesting place to go to at least once.

I wish there were more VM in military battlegrounds. My hubby would love those. LOL

The sturgeon shuffle had a 3-5-10K walk but we didn't attend. We moved upstream with the sturgeon that day. LOL

I'll get going one of these days.

How is the River behaving by you, are you north of the danger of flooding?

I don't know Matewin. Not at all familiar. I just walked Cahokia Mounds (again) yesterday. For once, it was a nice day for walking. Usually it's either freezing or sweltering. Cahokia Mounds is in southern Illinois, so I go with the Illinois Trekkers a lot. It's quite a ways from Chicago down to our neck of the woods. So...just go for half of the 5K, then turn around and come back. See how you do! A lot of people only walk a part of it. I'm glad you're joining VM! Now...I should do what you do and go up to Wisconsin to watch the sturgeon. That does sound interesting. I've never been to Wisconsin but have often heard how beautiful it is, especially Door County.

I have talked to Theresa and I'm going to join Windy City. I'm waiting for my first event. I just got back from New London, Wisconsin. I went up there to see the Sturgeon Run. It was awesome. The fish are huge. I saw some that looked like they were 8 feet long. Most were around 4 feet long but there were some 5-6 footers too.

I did a lot of walking while watching and searching for the fish.

I'm not sure if I can do 5K yet. I'm afraid I'll start walking and never get back to the beginning.

I think we will do Matewin. Probably spelled that wrong but it sounds interesting and might be a good place to start.

I'm in St. Louis. There are nine clubs in Illinois, but the Windy City Walkers out of Oak Lawn may be what you're looking for. You can check the ava.org website or you can contact Therese Glatzhofer at 708-425-0211 or email her at tglatz30@yahoo.com. This information is published in the Volksmarch newspaper, The American Wanderer, so I'm not passing out any confidential information! ;-)

The sign-up for the walks usually begins, say, at 8 or 8:30. You can register usually until 11 or noon, depending upon the club that's sponsoring the walk. So you have a range of 2-3 hours to begin your walk. There is usually a deadline of around 2 or 3 o'clock, the time that you have to be finished if you want your books stamped. The walks cost $3 to pay for the maps and the ribbons and signs that you follow as you walk along so you don't get lost. If you want to stop somewhere for lunch or shopping, you have plenty of time before the walk ends. The walks are not at all competitive. I like to bring my dog along. You can push the kids in strollers. The walks are circular, or you go out and come back, say, on the Katy Trail, so you end up back at the Start point. There are books that cost $5 each, but if you're new there's a discount on your first two: one for distance and one to mark the event. My dog is on her fourth book! (For dogs, they are free!) I'm almost finished with 4,000 KM and I've walked over 375 events. The books track all this for you.

You can use a walking stick. An older lady who walks with her great grandchildren uses a cane, but she only does a 5K (3.1 miles) now. You can always walk 5K instead of 10K. All the walks I can think of feature a 5K, too. Or just come out and walk whatever you can do.

Any more questions, just ask! We have been on bus trips, sometimes flying out to other locations. You can see a lot of the U.S. this way. There is a convention this summer in Iowa, so you can walk DesMoines, Davenport, etc.

I'm in Chicago. Sounds like we aren't all that far. What county are you in. I work for the 4-H program.

When you do a Volksmarch does it begin and end in the same place?

Did you like the walking stick. Since I have the bad ankle I thought it might be helpful. I don't need a cane to walk on the sidewalk but when I'm on an uneven path I think it might be beneficial. On the other hand, it just might be an extra weight encumberance. I already have too much extra weight to carry.

I asked my husband about it. He said I can't do 3 miles. I can't do 1/4 mile but when I can he will think about going with me. I can do a 1/4 mile. Next goal is 1/2. One of these days. Maybe by the fall I will be able to do a 5K walk through the forest.

I love spring but all in all I think the fall is the best season. Not so much rain in my neck of the woods. LOL

Thanks for the info on the American Volksmarch Assoc. I never knew how to check if there were any near me. I've used a walking stick but prefer to walk without them. Now I want to get out my old documentation booklets that track my number of marches and my kilometers and see where I left off. It's been so long (1983) that I can't even remember.

I'm a member of two Volksmarch clubs, the Illinois Trekkers and the St. Louis-Stuttgart Volksmarsch Club. I've been Volksmarching since 1993. The first time I did a 10K (6.2 miles), it took me about three hours and I was exhausted the rest of the day, but now I'm finished in less than two and can mow the lawn or do any other kind of work without feeling tired. I especially enjoy walking new routes. I can't praise Volksmarching enough. Do check out www.ava.org and look for your state. I'm walking Belleville, Illinois, Saturday morning, a new route! Yay!

I used a walking stick only once, on a hike through Turkey Run State Park in western Indiana.

Volksmarches are big in Germany where they originated. I lived in Fulda, WEST Germany (before the wall came down) for 5 years, and there were at least 5 organized walks in easy driving distance every weekend. Most had a 10K and a 20K walk.

This wikipedia site has some basic information. Military who served in Germany brought it to many places in this country - especially in Texas, I've heard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksmarching

I did a Volksmarch almost every weekend, and I participated in two marathon Volkmarches. Anyone know of any clubs in Hampton Roads, Virginia?

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